Improvement in apparatus for pickling sheet-iron



J. n. GREY. APPARATUS FOR PICKLING SHEET IRON.

Patente d May1,1877.

INVENTOI: X 1

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momma L/D W N. PETEflS. PHOTO-L1'I'NOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON. 'D C;

UNITED s'r'rns JOHN D. GREY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR PICKLING SHEET-IRON.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 190,316, dat d May 1,1877 application filed April 5, 1677.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN D. GREY, ofBaltimore city, State of Maryland, have invented a new and ImprovedApparatus for Pickling Sheet-Iron and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a'full, clear, and exact description of the same.

' I will first describe the process heretofore practiced.

After the sheets have been annealed they are placed in a tank edgewiseor vertical to the number of seventy-five to one hundred sheets in apack. The tank is then filled with dilute sulphuric acid. The sheets areallowed to remain in this bath from an hour tovan hour and a half forthe purpose of removing the oxide. This long exposure of sheets to theaction of the acid is very injurious to the sheet-iron, causing it toblister, and rendering it very brittle.

The principal reason the sheets require to remain so long in the bathis, when so many sheets are placed at one time in the bath they lie soclose together as to prevent the acid having free access to thecontact-surfaces of the sheets.

In carrying out my process, I employ an apparatus shown in verticallongitudinal section in Figure 1, and in plan in Fig. 2, of accompanyingdrawing.

The apparatus consists of a shallow oblongtank, A, filled with dilutesulphuric acid, and endless traveling chains B, mounted on pulleys U,fixed on transverse shafts D D. The shafts are so located, andthepulleys of such diameter relative to the edge of the tank, that theupper sections or halves of the chains lie about two inches beneath thesurface of the acid. The sheets E to be pickled are placed upon or slidonto the chains, so

acid is about three (3) minutes.

The shaft D being rotated by power applied in any suitable manner to itsprojecting end a, the chains are caused to travel slowly toward thatthey lie edge to edge, as shown.

the right. The sheets may be removed from the tank by the use of tongs,but I prefer .to employ for this purpose inclinesF, placed at the end ofthe tank, and attached to the top edge thereof. The progressive movementof the chains causes the sheets E to successively meet the inclines F,up which each is forced to slide by edgewise pressure of those behindit. It thus passes out of the acid-tank, and is at once plunged orplaced in a tank of water. In practice, I purpose placing the watertankin such contiguity to the acid-tank A that'the pickled sheets shall passfrom the former directly into the latter. The time occupied in thepassage of a sheet through the Thus, in a tank about fifty (50) feetlong, I am enabled to pickle three times the number of sheets, besidessaving about one-third the quantity of acid, and half the labor andexpense incident to the old plan above described.

What I claim is- 1. For use in the process of pickling iron, theacid-tank, traveling chains, and crossshafts, combined as shown anddescribed.

2. For use in the process of pickling iron, the combination of theinclines F with the tank and endless chains, as shown and described, forthe purpose specified.

The above specification of my invention signed by me this 24th day ofMarch, 1877.

JOHN D. GREY. Witnesses:

CHAS. A. PETTIT, SoLoN G. KEMoN.

